Is This FINALLY The End of Donald Sterling's Tasteless Los Angeles Times Ads?

As the Donald Sterling/Clippers/Racism/V. Stiviano mess continues, here's one positive byproduct: Our Long National Nightmare of horrid Sterling ads in the Los Angeles Times appears to be over.

No horribly designed and self-congratulatory Sterling ad appears in today's Sunday paper, where they're normally hard to avoid. Instead, the Times digs deep into the ads and discovers what I think most of us had already figured out a long time ago: Those ads are mostly bull$#!+. Promises of grand facilities to help the homeless or poor kids are all talk. Donations aren't as big as Sterling claims. And those ads featuring a yearbook-style parade of community leaders, all seemingly supporting Sterling, are printed without those leaders' consent.

A highlight from the Times' story:

Ads bearing the name of the Sterling Foundation have heavily promoted its namesake's good works. Those in the Los Angeles Times have featured pictures of the billionaire Clippers owner and numerous recipients of his largesse, including leaders of groups that serve minorities and the underprivileged.

Some of the ads said the foundation was committed to making $10 million in donations. Others cited larger figures — $17 million, even $20 million.

The foundation's actual giving has been far more modest than the publicity suggests.

And some of Sterling's most touted projects, such as the Malibu children's camp and earlier plans for a skid row homeless center, have so far failed to materialize.

From 2009, when Sterling began funding the foundation, through the end of 2012, it gave out about $1.4 million, according to tax records.

Most were grants of $5,000 to $20,000 to dozens of community groups and schools, including Para Los Niños, the United Negro College Fund and the Union Rescue Mission.

Some organizations that received the foundation's money said they were grateful. But others said they became turned off by what they considered Sterling's relentless self-promotion, even before the NBA banned the Clippers owner for life last week for a recording in which a man the league said was Sterling told a female friend not to associate with black people in public.

The story doesn't address the offensive design of these terrible-looking ads. But Sterling's claims and his bad taste go hand in hand: For example, his ads touting his funding a new homeless shelter included this image of what the shelter was going to look like:



(Thanks to Eric the Atwater Village Newbie a.k.a. Pedestrian Photographer for the image!) I mean, that's not only an ugly design for a building, but the drawing is all off. It would be impossible to even construct a building that looked like this. Such a half-assed design should have been the leading indicator that this was one big joke.

Previously on Franklin Avenue:

Donald Sterling Ropes Marilyn Monroe Into His Assault on Good Design (December 2013)

Donald Sterling Does It Again, Bends The Species Rules (June 2012)

Latest Sterling Ad: Too Cheap for Photo Rights? (February 2012)

Donald Sterling Expands His War Against Good Taste (December 2010)

Another Side of the Donald Sterling Ads (June 2009)

Donald Sterling's Floating Apartment Building -- And Other Photoshop Offenses (May 2009)

Donald Sterling Ads: Homeless? (August 2008)

Donald T. Sterling Discriminates Against Grammar (February 2008)

Donald T. Sterling is Looking For a Few "California-Type" Models (August 2007)

Is It Possible? Donald T. Sterling Ads, Worse Than Ever? (March 2007)

The Ugliest Newspaper Ads in the World (January 2007)

Donald Sterling Does It Again, Bends The Species Rules

As you know, we celebrate Donald T. Sterling's L.A. Times ads as the worst photoshopped newspaper ads in the world. There's plenty of evidence to back that up, just look at our roundup of past Donald Sterling blog posts here.

Last time we mentioned a Sterling ad, it was because his graphic designer hadn't even bothered to buy the rights to a stock photo, and instead slapped a photo watermarked with "STOCK PHOTO" wording still on the photo!

But at least past portrayals of Donald T. Sterling -- always a blurry, blown-out-of-proportion shot of him -- have suggested he was human. But looking at today's L.A. Times ad, I'm impressed that Sterling has finally come out as a Centaur -- half man, half horse. Congrats!

Latest Sterling Ad: Too Cheap for Photo Rights?

The Clippers are finally giving fans something to cheer about, which is quite a change for much-maligned owner Donald Sterling. But for fans of good design, Sterling is still Public Enemy No. 1.

Eagle-eyed reader John noticed this recent Sterling ad, in which the designers didn't even bother to license an actual stock photo (or hell, just take one themselves). Nope, this ad, for Sterling's Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel, includes an unlicensed stock image with the watermark "STOCK PHOTO" still stamped on it. Classy!

Sterling's horrific ads are legendary, of course, and I think he wears the badness as a badge of honor. I'm just surprised that the ad above doesn't include an awkwardly large, horribly trimmed and WAY out of focus shot of Sterling in a tux -- his signature design touch.

We've been ranting about Sterling's L.A. Times ads for years. Previously on Franklin Avenue:

Donald Sterling Expands His War Against Good Taste (December 2010)

Another Side of the Donald Sterling Ads (June 2009)

Donald Sterling's Floating Apartment Building -- And Other Photoshop Offenses (May 2009)

Donald Sterling Ads: Homeless? (August 2008)

Donald T. Sterling Discriminates Against Grammar (February 2008)

Donald T. Sterling is Looking For a Few "California-Type" Models (August 2007)

Is It Possible? Donald T. Sterling Ads, Worse Than Ever? (March 2007)

The Ugliest Newspaper Ads in the World (January 2007)

(Thanks to Franklin Avenue reader John for the tip!)

On Pacific Standard Time: LACMA's California Design Exhibit

As part of the citywide Pacific Standard Time exposition of California mid-20th Century art and design, LACMA's Resnick Pavilion is currently showcasing "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way," an interesting cross-section of the state's influential modern design from that era. Details:

This exhibition is the first major study of California midcentury modern design. With more than 300 objects—furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion and textiles, and industrial and graphic design—the exhibition examines the state’s role in shaping the material culture of the entire country. Organized into four thematic areas, the exhibition aims to elucidate the 1951 quote from émigré Greta Magnusson Grossman that is incorporated into the exhibition’s title: California design “is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions…It has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way."

We visited the exhibit on the same day we checked out the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the "Metropolis II" exhibit. Some pics from "California Design":


Vintage Airstream streamline trailer






Studebaker's 1962 sports car Avanti


Album covers


Ceiling light from Barton's Bonbonniere candy shop in San Francisco, circa 1952. (Victor Gruen, designer)


Modern furniture


Mattel and Barbie are a sponsor of the exhibit, hence the mid-century Barbie dolls on display


Barbie's mid-century dream house, circa 1962


Wartime poster


Table from the sportswear department at Bullock's Wilshire, designed by Jock D. Peters


Screen (with a cool atomic, space age feel), cira 1952, designed by Greta Magnusson Grossman.


"Rib chair," designed by Arthur Espenet Carpenter in 1968.

FRANKLIN AVENUE CONTEST: Soundtrack and Book to Beginners

"Thumbsucker" director Mike Mills is behind the new indie feature "Beginners," which hits theaters on June 3. The movie stars Ewan McGregor as a graphic designer who specializes in record covers. (Being married to a graphic designer who specialized for years in recording packages, that hits close to home for the Franklin Avenue crew.)

McGregor plays Oliver, who finds new love just months after the death of his father. "This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who -- following 44 years of marriage -- came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life," the movie blurb reads.

A companion book contains all the drawings which Mike Mills drew, and that Oliver (played by Ewan) works with in the film. Via Focus Features, we have a prize package for one Franklin Avenue reader: Beginners: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack as well as Drawings From the Film Beginners By Mike Mills. Simply email us at our Yahoo email address (to your right) and the Blogger Baby 2.0 will pick a name out of a hat. Happy movie-going!